Today we take a look at the question, what takes greater faith, believing in “God” or being an atheist? To me the question is obvious when we simply ask, so what must the atheist place faith in, to say they do not believe in God.

Today’s episode expands on Episode 8 as to how Deism can make us better people. Even though the original email that prompted Episode 8 is almost a year old, it actually turned up on a lap top during my vacation by coincidence or perhaps providence? In any event I read that email today and it is far deeper than how we an be better people via Deism, it is about what you leave behind when you leave “the church”, things beyond belief but fellowship, community and tradition that do have value. I do my best with this one, but frankly it is a tough subject with few easy answers, likely one topic that I will address many more times in the future.

Say what you want about revealed religions, point to the crazies and eccentrics if you want but in general organized faith tends to produce good people. We may take exception to some of their views say in the lifestyle choices of others and various other things, however, people that practice faiths such as Christianity with to goal of being better people in general do become better people.

So the question we approach today is an Deism offer us anything like that, free from the dogma of central authority and superstition?

Today we start out with a simple question, is prayer effective at all. We then go further to realize that this question is not as simple as most people make it. Prayer in fact can be effective even if God doesn’t exist and even if there is nothing super natural or even energetic going on. Simply because prayer can improve a person in many ways for example in one way, it can increase empathy. We go forward from there with a deep dive into things like ritual, energy and simply realizing our connection to the creation itself.

To me the most common argument made by atheists is that God doesn’t exist because you cannot prove God exists. Further when one points out that atheists cannot prove God does not exist, the atheist counters with the accurate statement that you “cannot prove a negative”.

As deists we are led by logic and reason, we believe in God because we know the metaphor of “I know a watch maker exists when I see a watch” is accurate, but this is not a sufficient counter argument to the atheist that doesn’t share our faith.

My counter argument to this however, is quite simple as you will hear in today’s episode. The atheist is unable to offer any proof for the existence of life apart from something we would call God. There is nothing here where the atheist can say, they can’t be called upon to produce a negative. Rather we call upon them to produce a positive.

If the basic raw material on the early earth can spontaneously produce life, even one celled organisms, please recreate this for us in a laboratory. Tune in today for a complete examination of this topic.

Honestly it is a fair question for the non Deist to ask. If Deism makes so much sense why are there not more of us? To me it comes down to a few things. First there is no way to use Deism as a system of control, so it doesn’t benefit the State or any “church” it only benefits the individual to encourage Deism. While it would certainly benefit mankind as a whole that is not the type of “benefit” I am speaking of.

We also have a marketing issue, how many people out there say things like, “I believe in God but not religion”, all of those people are Deists they just don’t know that they are. Perhaps our biggest issue though is because we lack lore, we lack stories and stories are the best tool any marketer has. We examine all of this and more today.

Today we look at the concepts of Pantheism, Panentheism and Pandeism and beyound that I will tell you why I tend to think like a Panendeist if there even is such a thing. I go into why I feel we should not really look at these as individual faiths, rather as philosophies within the larger Deist umbrella.

I will also discuss a bit about why I feel most people are actually Deists, even if they don’t call themselves that, how a Christian for instance is a Deist with a theism attached to their Deism. I also talk about telling others about Deism and growing our movement with a “soft evangelism”.

Today I tell a bit of my own journey to Deism, how I was raised Catholic, left that church and later became a Methodist. How all along the way I never truly believed in main stream revealed religion and how though a lot of study of spirituality I became spiritually homeless, with no name for what I was. Eventually a chance encounter led to the word Deism.

I also discuss “the point” of Deism, which I have found both members of revealed religion and agnostics/atheists tend to question. Basically if God doesn’t judge you or get involved in your daily life why bother? To many Deists this question may seem ridiculous but for those who are new to the concept I can see why it would come up.

Deism is usually described by non deists as a believe that God is like a clock maker, meaning he simply created the universe and walked away with no concern or further involvement. While there are a few Deists who feel this way the vast majority are far more spiritual in nature.

While we tend not to believe in miracles or a God that alters the world because we pray for something, we do acknowledge both our own spirits and the spirit that is God. To blanket Deism as the belief that God is like a clock maker to the universe is both a disservice to Deism and the Deist view of God.

Today we examine the spiritual side of Deism and reveal that indeed, reason and logic are not exclusive from spirituality and wonder.

In the first episode I simply tell you who I am, a little about what this podcast will be like and start to answer the complicate question of what is deism. I will also tell you about my path and how I came to find Deism.